Metric 'thou'?

Yes, I don't recall ever seeing either used. Some excise legislation uses hectolitres though (sad bastards).

I don't think the discussion you point to says anything about centigrade. The CIPM have said that SI prefixes are not to be used in conjunction with (deg)C (I can't type that in e-mail but you know what a degree sign looks like). The SI unit of temperature is of course the kelvin (K) (no degrees!); centigrade (celsius) and other scales (fahrenheit, reamur) are obsolete on the entirely rational ground that they don't start at zero. Imagine if length was defined in terms of a unit that was "the number of metres in excess of 362 (or some equally random number). Ho hum.

The name SI (Systeme International des Units) was adopted by the world authority on weights and measures (CIPM) in 1956, and the system ratified by the same body in 1960. It has, of course, been amended and updated many times since.

The problem is that joules are rather small for such things (1kWh =

Yes; an unfortunate coincidence with our traditional measuring device.

David

In article , Tony Jeffree writes

If your micrometer measures micrometres, it's a bloody good one.

Incidentally, I think that is (another) good reason to prefer the spelling "metre". Bloody Americans, just like they can't spell aluminium and got their nasty bastardised spelling adopted.

David

It does - but only when they are in large groups ;-)

Regards, Tony

So nearly right!

Roman chariots had wheels Four Foot Eight and a half inches apart- and this became the standard for railway locomotives. And you think that I am joking?

Now can I start on Megalithic Yards?

OK! I wont

Norm

It gets worse... hectolitres per hectare is relatively common.

I did not express myself well. I was giving different examples of addressing anomalies. Obsoleting centigrade was one example. Discussing anomalous prefixes (e.g. lower case 'k') was another example.

Quite. I am sure we would get used to it. It is unfortunate that people have use centi but don't use prefixes above kilo and below milli. We can thank the computer industry for introducing nano, mega, giga and soon tera. There is no reason why we should not say gigametres, megagrams etc.

Here in British Columbia I am proud to state that we pay for our electricity by the kWh, our gas is priced per GJ, and we pay our property taxes based on a mil-rate, i.e. one thousandth of a dollar per dollar of property value. So nice to be standarised - or is that standardized? Mike in 2010 Winter Olympics country (wonder what the mil-rate will be to pay for THAT!)

from ravensworth2674

Why not!

It's a facinating story - and essentially the basis for all existing systems of measurment.

Who would believe that a 1/10th megalithic yard cube would hold exactly

JG

And that, I understand , is the width of two horses arses!

JG, I lived within a mile or so of George Stephenson's cottage and it would seem that the great whatever family also were involved in locomotive construction at Shildon, Co Durham. So the Roman spacing for tracks leading from the Roman Wall area to Tyne Wherries( coal barges) was part of my history!

However, I was always interested in local history and grew up with Bronze Age skeletons and cistes and things in my youth club. With an interest in turning and northumbrian bagpipes. We all have Moonbeams from a Lesser Lunacy! Reading Knight and Lomas in the Book of Hiram revealed the apparent logic from the past- and the rise of Freemasonry etc. It may sound daft but we have all had the Da Vinci Code thing in recent months.

So to Anzaniste and his two horses arses! Well, my father was a farrier as a sapper- on the Island of Anglesey. OK, he set fire to a couple of unwilling horses and they came to rest- eventually. For the sceptics, there is the Hidden Burial Chamber and the markings where Venus will point its way yet again-- on the Summer Solstice. So, dear friend, you have still a few days to find out if it is all waffle.

Will you report back? Oddly, I seem to have been conceived somewhere near the site. Odder still, it was exactly 77 years from my birth--yesterday.

Sort of cheers?

Norm

Petrol consumption measured per furlong^-2. :)

I first met FFF when I was getting my Edukayshun. Back then, a firkin per fortnight was just about the right "fuel" consumption for a young, virile, rugby-playing engineering student.

Regards,

David P.

Ok, but have a look at how those GJs are calculated. In the UK, and many other parts of the world the gas meter actually measures in 100s of standard cubic feet.

Regards,

David P.

In article , David Powell writes

Yes, but the natural gas in the NTS (gas national transmission system) has its calorific value controlled within fairly close limits, and even then there is IIRC a slight correction factor to reflect the gas in the local network. And how else would they measure the energy content of what they deliver to you?

I think the cubic feet thing is a reflection of the fact that most domestic gas meters are fairly old; AIUI they are gradually being replaced with electronic ones calibrated in m^3.

David

Yes. Since the year 2000, all gas meters approved for UK use have been in cubic meters. Gas meters last up to 20 years apparently. The proportion of meters in cubic feet will decline from about 75% in 2003 to zero% in 2020.

1/36 of a yard!

A Mars bar!

Actually it was the other way round. You'll find it was the 'bloody British' who misheard it originally and we've been spelling it wrongly ever since.

-Neil F.

Were you on our side in the last war ?

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

"Alan Holmes" skrev i en meddelelse news:r6edi.456$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe6-win.ntli.net...

What size foot?

Not my back yard!

;-)

In article , neil f writes

I'm pretty sure this is spherical objects, since the unit was originally defined (in 1793) by the French, who definitely always spelled it "metre". As far as I can determine, it is only the USA who insist - and it is in their official definitions - on calling it a meter, which is kind of dumb since a meter is a device for measuring physical quantities. The rest of the English speaking world (including Canada) have AFAIK always used metre in their official definitions.

David